Oral history interview with Mary R. Feay

Abstract

Mary Feay attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, taking an undergraduate degree in mathematics and then two master’s, in math and computer science, in 1966-67. She accepted a job with Bell Labs and began work initially in New Jersey, then moved to Bell Labs Indian Hill in Naperville, IL, working in the computer center doing operating systems and programming languages — creating software tools used in developing the electronic switching systems (ESS). She was promoted in 1977 into supervisory roles for system testing, office applications, and standards-setting. The latter included a three-year stint (1980-83) participating in the development of CHILL, the CCITT High Level Language. She assesses a set of 1967 advertisements from the trade journal Datamation, then relates her experience at Bell during the 1970s with affirmative action as well as hiring practices.

This material is based on work funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award B2014-07 “Tripling Women’s Participation in Computing (1965-1985).”